Kenya Rail­ways en­gi­neer Maxwell Mengich on Fri­day re­leased de­tails of how phase two of the stan­dard gauge rail­way line from Syoki­mau in Machakos to Suswa in Ka­ji­ado will con­nect var­i­ous towns.

He said the phase, which runs from Nairobi to Naivasha, will change the face of Ka­ji­ado county. Mengich said it will open up Twala, On­gata Ron­gai, Kis­e­rian, Bul­bul and Ngong towns.

“The route starts from the west end of the Nairobi south hub, where the Mom­basa–Nairobi SGR ends, turns south-west­ward, through the Nairobi Na­tional Park and then west­ward, past Twala and On­gata Ron­gai towns,” he said.

Mengich, who is at­tached to the SGR project, made the re­marks in Ka­ji­ado town af­ter an ex­ten­sive tour of the in­tended route, from Syoki­mau to Ngong. He was ac­com­pa­nied by Gover­nor David Nke­di­anye.

Mengich said the SGR will cross the Ma­gadi Road next to the Ad­ven­tist Univer­sity of Africa and Ngong Road at Em­bul­bul urban cen­tre. From there, it will de­scend into the Rift Val­ley through a tun­nel lo­cated north­west of Ngong Hills.

From Ngong Hills, the line will pro­ceed north­west to the pro­posed In­dus­trial Parks at Mai Mahiu and Suswa, then crosses the B3 Road at Duka Moja on the way to Naivasha. Nke­di­anye said there will be ma­jor ac­tiv­i­ties in Twala, Kan­disi, Rimpa, Nko­roi, Em­bul­bul near Ve­teri­nary Farm and in Kimuka, once the SGR en­ters Ka­ji­ado.

He urged the SGR team to en­gage the pub­lic openly to avoid un­nec­es­sary squab­bles. In Mai Mahiu, a sta­tion will be es­tab­lished about 10 kilo­me­tres South of the town­ship. There will be an­other sta­tion in Suswa town.

Mengich said light SGR pas­sen­ger trains in Ngong, Twala, On­gata Ron­gai and Em­bul­bul will ease road traf­fic jams. There will be a 6kmwidth, 18m-av­er­age-height, sin­gle­line bridge in the Nairobi Park.